April 15, 2020 -Vol. 16, Issue 8CheyenneandArapaho-nsn.govFollow us on Twitter #CATribalTribune

CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK / pg. 5 ONLINE LEARNING / pg. 4

(OKLAHOMA CITY) Doctors in leadership positions at each of the Oklahoma City metro’s major medical cen-ters are preparing for a surge in patients.

They are worried Oklahomans are not doing enough to stem the COVID-19 crisis.

Hospital systems are now sending out this warning: every time you leave your home you are putting yourself at risk.

Oklahoma medical systems are now joining forces to help residents understand how important it is to stay at home.

COVID-19 came to Oklahoma City in spectacular fashion.

Thunder fans had a front row seat March 11, as the NBA cancelled the season when Utah Jazz player Rudy Gobert tested positive.

Nearly four weeks later, some medical profession-als believe we should have locked down Oklahoma that night.

Some say we are losing the battle against coronavirus.“We’ve tested under 20,000 people in a state of four

million people,” said Dr. Jeff Cruzan, President of Inte-gris Medical Group. “We’ve tested less than one half of one percent of the population. We have no idea how many cases are out there. There’s a huge number of cases out there. It’s inadequate where we are right now.”

Mobile testing sites are open, but Oklahoma remains last in the nation for the number of people tested, per cap-

ita.New York has the highest rate of COVID-19 testing.Their hospitals are overrun.Doctors at every medical system in the Oklahoma City

metro say Oklahoma could be in a very similar situation, if residents don’t heed medical advice to remain isolated.

“People have to understand, the only vaccine for this virus is staying at home,” said Integris Health Partners President, Dr. Carl Raczkowski.

In Oklahoma, poor health outcomes are well docu-mented.

The coronavirus pandemic is on track to overwhelm a system already taxed by an unhealthy population.

“We live in a state that has (high rates of) obesity, di-abetes, heart disease. All of the things that are the worst risk factors for this disease we lead the country in,” said Dr. Raczkowski. “We have, if not reality, a real potential of our healthcare system being over-run, so if you’re hav-ing a heart attack you might not be able to get in the door because there’s no room in the inn.”

In Oklahoma the messaging out of the Governor’s office has been consistent. Their plan “safer at home” recommends Oklahomans over 65 years old should stay home.

The Oklahoma City mayor has gone one step further, urging all residents to stay at home, only leaving for es-sential errands like purchasing food or medicine.

Oklahoma City doctors warn residents are not doing enough to isolate during coronavirus outbreak

Rosemary Stephens, Editor-in-Chief

Tribal leaders across the country con-tinue to make hard decisions and provide leadership to their citizens in the midst of a world health pandemic. Much like state governments, Tribal governments are monitoring their dwindling budgets as Tribal leaders deal with loss revenues from the closing of their tribal casinos and businesses in an effort to stop the spread of the virus, and are operating es-sential services only.

Unlike state governments, Tribal governments have continued to pay their employees full pay and benefits during the shutdown. With casinos closed in-definitely and the days turning into weeks tribal leaders are now facing hard decisions as they look to temporarily furlough employees.

What is a furlough? A furlough is an employer-mandated leave of absence without pay. Furloughs are intended to be short, with employees returning back

to work after a short period of time.The majority of Oklahoma Tribal

Nations’ closed their gaming businesses during the week of March 16.

For Cherokee Nation in northeast-ern Oklahoma with over 380,000 citi-zens, Cherokee Nation’s Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin stated the tribe had strong reserves and ccould operate without dis-ruption for awhile, but there is a limit.

“We’re taking it in stages, but the truth is, as someone in the media said, we don’t make the timeline, the virus makes the timeline,” Hoskin told The Tulsa World during an interview.

In other parts of the country, the Bay Mills Indian Community announced the temporary furlough of 400 employees, but will continue to carry health insur-ance on all their employees.

The Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes based out of Concho, Okla. have also announced the temporary furlough of tribal employees, but they, too, will be continuing to cover employees’ health

insurance. In addition, the tribe has set up a group filing of unemployment ben-efits to assist their employees in filing for unemployment benefits.

On March 25 the U.S. Senate unan-imously passed a $2 trillion economic rescue plan called the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, that offers relief to individual Americans and businesses impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Several key funding provisions of the CARES Act could provide relief to tribes that are suffering from the loss of revenues from casino closures, including the following the U.S. Dept. of Treasury Tribal Stabi-lization Fund. Section 601 provides $8 billion in emergency relief funds to Indi-an Tribes. These funds will be available to tribal governments who certify that the funds will be used to offset expen-ditures incurred due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

One centerpiece of the Act for Indi-an Country is the Coronavirus Relief

Fund (CVF). The “use of funds” provi-sion the Act states that CVF payments to tribal, state and local government can cover only those costs that: (1) are nec-essary expenditures due to COVID-19; (2) were not accounted for in the most recently approved tribal government budget; and (3) were incurred between March 1 – Dec. 30, 2020.

Oklahoma Indian Gaming Associa-tion Chairman Matthew Morgan (Chick-asaw Nation) said, “Tribal Nations are in the process of identifying and determin-ing how best to utilize these relief pack-ages to care for their citizens, the pub-lic health and safety needs within their jurisdictions and their tribal economies, which include but are not limited to trib-al governmental gaming operations and associated entertainment amenities.”

With over 574 federally recognized Tribal Nations in the U.S., it is unknown what percentage each Tribal Nation would receive from the $8 billion relief funds earmarked for Tribal Nations.

Tribal leaders face difficult decisions ahead

Louie’s in midtown Oklahoma City on March 27, sits empty during the “shelter in place” guidelines issued for Oklahoma City residents. (Photo Sarah Phipps)

Latoya LonelodgeStaff Reporter

Uncertainty and concern continue to plague the nation as the COVID-19 pandemic becomes more widespread. During this unprecedented time of social distancing to stop the spread of the dead-ly virus, schools, parents and communities are working to-gether unlike ever before to bring quality education stu-dents within their homes.

On March 16, the Oklaho-ma State Board of Education voted to approve school clo-sures for all public, charter and virtual schools until April 6 in an effort to stop the rapid spread of COVID-19. During school closures, parents and students used this time of so-cial distancing to structure and put best practices of learning to use while at home.

Throughout Cheyenne and Arapaho country, parents have been utilizing online resources along with methods of their own to ensure their children’s education. Whether that is following school instructions or learning by nature, edu-cation ensues outside of the classroom despite the uncer-

tainty of the future.Cheyenne and Arapaho

tribal citizen Mahgan Muskett, who is also the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes STEP program director, said learning from home is a different experience for children. While Muskett’s children attend Calumet Pub-lic Schools, she has been uti-lizing resources at home that were given by her children’s schoolteachers.

“My children, I’m sure like many other children, are used to learning in a classroom set-ting with a teacher or an aide available to assist when they have questions. Home is a place of relaxation and play-time. Creating a learning en-vironment is something new and confusing and my children are feeling the frustration of not having their teacher avail-able to answer questions,” Muskett said.

Muskett said since the clo-sure of the school, her chil-dren’s teachers created a Face-book page for each grade level and sent invites out to families.

“This page is used to up-date us on information and let us know about the teachers posting updated lessons on their apps that they use in the

A New Era ofDistance Learning

Parents and Schools Configure Plans for Online Learning

By Ali Meyer

PAGE 2 Tsistsistas & HinonoeiCheyenne & Arapaho Tribal Tribune

SOCIAL DISTANCEPOW

WO

WLatoya Lonelodge, Staff Reporter

For many tribal citizens throughout the country, March and April mark the beginning of powwow season with annual big powwow events such as the Denver March Powwow in Denver, Colo., and Gathering of Nations in Albuquerque, N.M.

That is until the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic spread across the U.S. in a matter of weeks, bringing with it the cancellation of powwows, art markets, and thou-sands of other planned events indefinitely.

For many Native American communities, powwows mean more than a way of life.

Powwow events and gatherings in the United States provided the opportunity to showcase diverse cultur-al backgrounds of Native Americans, whether that was through dancing in full regalia or vendors selling art-work, jewelry and handmade regalia. With the spread of COVID-19, dancers, singers and vendors were forced to follow social distancing guidelines, with many unaware of what the future will hold.

However, through technology and social media, pow-wows and social distancing have gone viral online. A Face-book page called Social Distance Powwow quickly gained popularity through its name, content, and has now spread worldwide with Native Americans sharing videos and sto-ries from the comfort and safety of their own homes.

Dan Simonds, with the Pequot Tribe, was the original founder of the Social Distance Powwow page, along with co-founders Hebert Rencountre, Crow Creek Sioux, and Stephanie Hebert, Mi’k maq.

Through the Social Distance Powwow page, Simonds said he reclaimed the social distancing that is shown through media. Simonds said himself, along with fellow vendors and artists have had shows cancelled due to the social distancing order. Simonds specializes in wampum, a type of traditional jewelry from his tribe in the east coast, and also owns a business called Wampum Wear.

“A lot of powwow folks, even dancers and drummers, have been affected by what’s going on, there wasn’t any kind of group, to the level that I envisioned on any kind of social media platforms, so I wanted to make a group that could embrace the drums, the dancers, the singers, the art-ists, the vendors and our whole community so that we had a place we could go to be seen and heard,” Simonds said.

Simonds said there’s not many Indigenous outlets for media and the page shows how important it is to have a nation wide media presence for native people.

“There’s not one that really exists, on a good level, we really don’t have our own stations on TV, Netflix is start-ing to pick up some things but it’s not enough, often our voices are silenced so this kind of shows how necessary it is for our voices to be heard and how much people want their voices to be heard,” Simonds said.

Since the creation of the page on March 16, more than 140,00 Facebook users have joined the Social Distance Powwow page, with users openly sharing videos of danc-ing in regalia, artwork and songs.

Gaining momentum in popularity, Simonds said he had no idea but the cause was needed.

“We needed more of our own platforms, since I started this page there’s been another one that popped up and a few others, another big one I noticed growing is the Quar-antine Dance Specials page, that came after we did, so they’ve been doing a lot of specials and hosting live videos and they’ve been getting sponsors for dances so people are competing for that prize money, that’s been cool to see that emerge and grow along with our platform,” Simonds said.

With the need for a social media platform like the So-cial Distance Powwow page, Simonds said he wants to see more pages growing on Facebook.

“It’s kind of interesting this is a bad time for everyone in the world but bad times often force us Indigenous folks to think outside the box and be resilient in a lot of ways and this is kind of a way of being resilient, and in dark times, bringing some light to everyone that needs it,” Si-

monds said. With the Social Distance Powwow becoming a move-

ment worldwide, Simonds said they were focused on the Indigenous peoples of North America, but has gained rec-ognition in other countries such as Canada and Europe.

“We are in our early stages in our organization so we’re still trying to figure out do we want to go the non-profit route and how and when do we want to do that, with ev-erything that’s going on in the world, we’re kind of taking everything slow because we never know what tomorrow will bring,” Simonds said.

Through live streaming, video submissions and content posted to the Social Distance Powwow page, a clash of diverse cultural backgrounds can be seen from around the world.

“We have a lot of topics … one I like is called ‘Our Story,’ all too often our stories are silenced and not really shared publicly in a lot of ways, some of that’s traditional we keep things to ourselves but there’s times when things and stories need to be shared, I think this is one of those times. We found a lot of traditional storytellers that are up on the page,” Simonds said.

“Speaking and telling their stories, it’s been great to hear these stories and we also have a lot of Native mu-sicians, and that’s under the performers section, they’ve been going live throughout the page, there’s also some-thing new, artists are doing art studio talks and art tours and some people can kind of enter their space during this time when we can’t be together,” Simonds said.

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic when busi-nesses, organizations and social events were being shut down, conversations began between Simonds and Ren-countre, co-founder, over the cancellations of powwows.

“As we spoke, we shared how the COVID-19 pandemic has led us to losing our opportunities, Dan as a powwow vendor, and myself as a powwow emcee. We lost several opportunities due to the pandemic and wanted to work to-gether with Stephanie to help encourage people to contin-ue to support one another,” Rencountre said.

Rencountre said the page has held live Social Distance Powwows for the past three weekends.

“At first we had no idea how the Social Distance Pow-wow would work, or if people would even enjoy it. How-ever, the excitement of acknowledging people online, even if it’s virtually, validates the importance of having a place for people to gather online, this helps us feel like we are actually together sharing space, the participation is great and continues to grow,” Rencountre said.

During the social distancing order, Rencountre said this time is important.

“Indigenous beliefs and traditions have always been around, however, western philosophy dominates school education, entertainment and media. Now that all of that is taken away, Indigenous values and customs now have a platform because people have open minds and hearts during this time,” Rencountre said.

Fellow Co-Founder Stephanie Hebert said Simonds and herself have known each other for years as artists.

“I reached out to him to ask if he wanted or needed any assistance with the group. At that time it had 150 people, little did we realize how quickly the movement would gain momentum, and the magnitude of support it would pro-vide to the people,” Hebert said.

Hebert said the experience has been humbling.“There are so many people who have suited up to dance

for others, as well as support each other in these difficult times. I am honored to be part of this wonderful movement and to be working alongside Dan and Whitney in this en-deavor,” Hebert said.

Hebert said she’s proud of the positivity the Social Dis-tance Powwow has brought to people across the globe.

“It has also become a platform for artists, storytellers and dancers to share their prayers with others,” Hebert said.

For Hebert, she said powwows are more than just fun on the weekends.

“There is a lifestyle and relationships that are built on the trail that really affect peo-ples’ day-to-day lives,” He-bert said.

Hebert said native culture values relationships with fam-ily members and friends.

“Powwows are one major way these relationships are strengthened and maintained. Today, we are being told to socially distance ourselves, which is completely contra-dictory to most people’s val-ues. At the SDP, we are providing a space for those rela-tionships to continue in a safe way, as well as widening the social circles in the powwow community,” Hebert said.

Through the page, Hebert said they also strive to create a space for others to escape the negatives aspects in the world.

“It also provides a way for dancers and singers to share their prayers and songs with others, which has been lift-ing the spirits of those watching, and creating a feeling of comrade in these hard times,” Hebert said.

Through the Social Distance Powwow page, a vari-ety of cultural backgrounds from around the world can be seen through dance, regalia, art and storytelling as the page continues to gain followers by the day.

During a recent t-shirt launch for the page, Simonds said there were a lot of questions and conversations re-garding the t-shirt design. Simonds said they collaborat-ed with Votan, an artist who is known for his work with t-shirts, for the launch.

“We collaborated with him and we rolled out this shirt and there’s been a lot of questions and conversations be-cause the woman that we featured, she’s got green eyes and a lot of Natives, especially Plains Natives, don’t real-ize Natives come in all colors, eye colors and shapes, so a lot of Natives that don’t get out of their communities much don’t realize that yeah there are actually Natives with green and blue eyes even prior to contact,” Simonds said.

Simonds said that even as Indigenous people, we bring ourselves down because others don’t realize they haven’t been to every reservation.

“They haven’t gone to every tribe to see that these peo-ple with green and blue eyes exist within our own country, it’s kind of sad even within our own country we break each other down, it’s all because of ignorance so this shirt kind of educates in a way that’s simple but people are kind of getting it,” Simonds said.

Simonds said t-shirt profits have gone towards support-ing Native businesses.

“We just get a small donation of all that back to SDP that we’re holding just to have a fund so we can figure out what we want to do with later, but majority of these sales are going towards those businesses, it’s just dollars that we’re getting,” Simonds said.

For future endeavors with the page, Simonds said he wants to see Social Distance Powwow exist in a real phys-ical space and have a real powwow.

“Like on a scale of Gathering of Nations, to have a Na-tive run powwow and a Native run organization so we can help Indigenous communities in any way we can, again it’s in the early stages so we’re kind of figuring out what roads we want to take and how we want to do this,” Si-monds said.

As an artist, Simonds said he has always told people that no matter what they are pursuing in life, to always do what they love and good things will follow.

“As long as you do what you love and follow your heart, good things will come from it and that’s kind of how I’ve managed to succeed in life myself is just doing what I love and good things come out of it,” Simonds said.

For questions regarding Social Distance Powwow email stephmuise91@gmail.com.

Social Distance Powwow Becomes Popular Social Media Page During Pandemic

Founding members of the new Social Media page, “Social Distance Powwow.” The page was created on March 17, 2020 and now has over 152K fol-lowers. From l-r: Dan Simonds, Stephanie Hebert and Whitney Rencountre. (Courtesy photos)

PAGE 3Tsistsistas & Hinonoei Cheyenne & Arapaho Tribal Tribune

Cheyenne and ArapahoT r i b a l T r i b u n e

Latoya Lonelodge, Reporter/Advertising Sales405-422-7608 / llonelodge@cheyenneandarapaho-nsn.gov

1600 E. Hwy 66, Suite 8, El Reno OK / P. O. Box 38, Concho, OK 73022 Fax: 405-422-8204

2010-2019 NATIVE AMERICAN JOURNALISTS ASSOCIATION MEDIA AWARD WINNER & 2012-2017 AWARD WINNER OF THE OPA BETTER NEWSPAPER CONTEST

DISCLAIMER: Letters to the editor, opinions and commentaries do not reflect the views of the Tribal Tribune unless specified. Correspondence must be signed and include a return address and telephone number for verification, otherwise it will not be published. The Tribal Tribune reserves the right to edit letters for clarity and length. Submission of a letter does not guarantee its publication. Photographs, news stories or other materials in this publication may not be reprinted without prior permission. Printed by Lindsay Web Press, Lindsay, Okla.

Oklahoma Press Association member Native American Journalists Association member

Rosemary Stephens, Editor-in-Chief405-422-7446 / rmstephens@cheyenneandarapaho-nsn.gov

Society of Professional Journalists members

POW

WO

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Rosemary Stephens, Editor-in-Chief

On March 13, 2020 the Oklahoma State Dept. of Health reports four confirmed pos-itives for COVID-19. Four short weeks later the data showed 2,184 confirmed positives, 488 currently hospitalized and 108 deaths from COVID-19 (as of April 14).

As the number of confirmed positives and deaths increase daily across Oklahoma and the United States, there seems to be many who still hold to the belief, ‘this won’t hap-pen to our family.’

And that mind set is the most frustrating for Tomi Bailey.

Tomi’s mother, Shineesta Emily Bushy-head Adams (Shine) has been hospitalized with COVID-19 for over two weeks, fighting for her life. Shine, 61 years old, is a citizen of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes living in Newkirk, Okla., who, prior to becoming ex-posed to the coronavirus and being diagnosed with COVID-19, was in good health and ac-tive in her children and grandchildren’s daily lives.

“Stay home. Social distance … please. This is taking lives. It is separating families and people are fighting this alone. Nobody wants to be separated from their mothers, their fathers, and their children

… their grandmas or their grandpas. The hardest thing is you are alone in this. If they die from this, they die alone and you are not able to give them a funeral. This is serious. It is NOT the flu,” Tomi said in response to be-ing asked what was one message she would want to send.

How Shine came into contact with the virus is still somewhat of a mystery but the force and quickness the virus attacked Shine follows along with almost every account one reads about a person who becomes infected with COVID-19.

“My brother AJ came home on the 20th (March) and he wasn’t feeling very good so he had gone to the clinic here in Newkirk. They said he had a sinus infection and he asked if he could be around his mom and dad, and they said yes,” Tomi, said.

By March 24 Shine began to show symp-toms. Fever, a cough, and said she had had a headache for three days. On March 25 Shine went to her primary doctor who tested her for the flu, it came back negative, and the diagno-sis ended up being bronchitis. They gave her medicine and sent her home.

“For days my mom sheltered at home, exhibiting all the symptoms of COVID-19, getting worse with each passing day. The fol-

Family holds onto hope while mother fights for her life after being diagnosed with COVID-19

Rosemary Stephens Editor-in-ChieF

(CLINTON, OK) As Oklahoma’s positive cases for COVID-19 continue to increase 100+ on a daily basis, testing sites are in-creasing throughout the state.

Clinton Indian Health Center located in Clinton, Okla. began their drive thru testing on April 6.

“Drive thru testing is available for one patient per household and only for those individuals who are experiencing symp-toms of COVID-19, in-cluding fever, cough and shortness of breath,” Capt.

Joe Bryant, Clinton Indian Health Center’s chief ex-ecutive officer said.

When patients arrive at the Clinton Indian Health Center they follow road signs directing them to the registration area, known as the first check-point. Individuals are then screened for symptoms of COVID-19, and once con-firmed they are instructed to move forward to the testing area. Lab and med-ical staff will instruct the individual to roll down their window, tilt their head back and their nose will be swabbed. Follow-ing this procedure, indi-viduals will be asked to

Clinton Indian Health Center in Clinton, Okla. began drive-thru testing for COVID-19 on Monday, April 6. Above is RN Shane Enochs (r) and Lacey Laurenzana, medical support personnel manning the registration station. (Photos / Rosemary Stephens)

Clinton Indian Health Centerbegins COVID-19 drive thru testing

DRIVE THRU TESTING / pg. 6

Shine Adams (l) pictured with her son AJ Adams. Shine is currently hospitalized in Oklahoma City fighting to recover from COVID-19. (Photo via Facebook)SHINE ADAMS: COVID-19 / pg. 6

PAGE 4 Tsistsistas & HinonoeiCheyenne & Arapaho Tribal Tribune

ONLINE LEARNINGcontinued from pg. 1

Paid Advertising

classroom,” Muskett said. While this is Calumet’s

way of assisting students with home schooling, Muskett said there are many resources for families to utilize for free.

“One application I suggest that is provided by the tribes for tribal families is myON, which is a reading applica-tion. It is great for all ages and has thousands of books and reading options. My 5-year-old daughter likes us-ing myON because it reads to her. You can also print off worksheets from education.com, which will allow you to print so many before needing to sign up for a premium account,” Mus-kett said.

One of Muskett’s favorite applications for younger chil-dren is the TeachMe app.

“It covers grades Pre-K through third grade. My children have both utilized this app in the classroom. Our school uses MobyMax and Acellus to do their school work that the teachers have uploaded,” Mus-kett said.

While this is uncharted territory during this time of social distancing, Muskett en-courages parents to keep in touch with their children’s teachers.

“Remember not everyone is made to be a teacher, so don’t get frustrated. Give your kids a lot of support and make this fun. Don’t get mad when they get one wrong because their teacher doesn’t get mad, stay calm, which I know is hard because we want our children to get it right, but that is how they learn,” Muskett said.

Muskett said some children are going to do great learning at home and some are going to struggle.

“I would suggest only doing work one hour to 90 minutes a day for students 1st grade through 6th grade and encourage them to read. If they can read they can follow in-structions and teachers can assist in catching them up at the beginning of the next school year.”

“So don’t get down if there is something they are struggling with. Pre-K through Kin-

dergarten, I would suggest 45 minutes of learning time, and a lot of playtime. Our chil-dren actually learn a lot through playing. If you are working outside invite your children to help, they will learn a lot about science, nature and life,” Muskett said.

And while learning outdoors remotely, other parents are soaking in the time spent with their children and educating what it means to spend time together during the pan-demic.

“We have been using this time at home to organize our home, clean out clutter, en-joying the outdoors during nice weather and cooking together,” Tashina Tahdooahnippah, Cheyenne and Arapaho tribal citizen said.

Tahdooahnippah, with the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes Education Department has children that go to Darlington Elementary School, El Reno High School, and a 2-year-old that attended the Child Development Center.

Alongside her children, Tahdooahnippah said they began utilizing the trails and pow-wow grounds in Concho, Okla., as a safe so-cial distancing outing area.

“Living close to the El Reno Lake, espe-cially having younger children, we utilize that as a resource in taking walks as a family, to talk about nature, weather and the animals

we see,” Tahdooahnippah said. Structuring her children’s education at

home, Tahdooahnippah said one task that helps keep her children on track was creating a daily schedule for each of them.

“This helps with who will be using the computers for online classes and who will be using that time for other things like crafting, chores or playing. Keeping things as close to normal for the kids has been key for making the days seem less hectic and helps keep them active throughout the day,” Tahdooahnippah said.

In setting daily schedules, Tahdooahnip-pah said she tried to mimic a school day for them with regard to how long they spent on each subject.

“As the weather begins to change we will be utilizing our backyard for more outdoor projects, we want to begin learning about plants and gardening,” Tahdooahnippah said.

Uncertain of how long the pandemic will continue, the Oklahoma State Board of Edu-cation voted to close all schools through the remainder of the year, with classes resuming on April 6 with distance learning.

While receiving instruction from schools on continuing classes starting April 6, Tah-dooahnippah said Darlington second grade teachers have been prompt about getting

links and login information out to parents as soon as spring break had ended.

“It has allowed us to start the programs and pick right back up on the reading re-quirements, which are critical in the elementary level. My 2-year-old has been a little more relaxed as far as cur-riculum but she still engages hands-on with play dough, coloring and helping to add ingredients to food we cook together,” Tahdooahnippah said.

For her high schooler, Tah-dooahnippah said she had to wait a little longer as the state gave a date of April 6 for in-struction to resume.

“El Reno district has been very helpful in contacting us to pick which method works, either paper or online, and then we received emails and

phone calls from teachers to make sure our student were ready to log in on April 6,” Tah-dooahnippah said.

Being an education specialist working in early college and career readiness, Tah-dooahnippah said some advice she would give for high school and middle school stu-dents is to continue challenging oneself and work on free websites for college prep.

“Now would be a great time to set some short term and long term educational goals and begin working towards those. For sopho-mores and juniors now would be a great time to work on ACT prep courses online, a great free website that includes videos and guid-ance for all grade levels and courses would be Khan Academy,” Tahdooahnippah said.

Tahdooahnippah said libraries are also working with the schools in order to create logins so that students continue to have ac-cess to books.

“No matter what age your students are I recommend setting time aside for them to read each day,” Tahdooahnippah said.

For tribally enrolled students, the myON online digital library has been made into an available resource for students in Pre-K through 12th grade.

ONLINE LEARNING / pg. 6

PAGE 5Tsistsistas & Hinonoei Cheyenne & Arapaho Tribal Tribune

PANDEMIC FUNERAL / pg. 7

CORONAVIRUSOUTBREAKcontinued from pg. 1

The medical community is now sending urgent word to the public, stay home and stay isolated.

These medical experts say far too many Oklahomans are running non-essential er-rands, or bringing their chil-dren with them to the gro-cery store.

“What people really don’t understand is we are essen-tially food for the virus. If we stay at home, the virus runs out of its food supply. If you take grandma and the kids to Wal-Mart, they just be-came the new buffet offering for the virus,” said Dr. Cru-zan. “So they really have to stay at home if we’re going to stem the tide of this pan-demic. We have to starve the virus out, and that’s how we do it. We stay at home. We don’t let it have another food source.”

The novel coronavirus needs people to keep getting together, going shopping to-gether, visiting public places together in order for humans to fuel the feeding frenzy.

Medical experts say the best way to stop the disease from feasting on humanity is to isolate.

“Assume every person they come in contact with outside the house they’re living in has this disease,” said Dr. Raczkowski. “How would you act if you had a potentially fatal illness that was in everybody that you interact with. What would you do? I think if you think of it that way you’ll do the right thing.”

Epidemiologists now be-lieve individuals are capable of infecting another person with COVID-19 despite ex-hibiting no symptoms.

“What we know about COVID-19 is that a lot of in-dividuals may feel great, and are not having any symptoms from COVID-19, but they can be actively shedding particles everywhere they’re

going and spreading it to other individuals,” said Dr. Charles Smith, Vice Presi-dent of Medical Affairs for Mercy Health OKC.

No sane person would get on a cruise ship right now be-cause we know these vessels are a breeding grounds for disease. Medical experts say going to the grocery store is like hopping on a cruise ship.

“All of those people in the store are at risk of being infected,” said Dr. Cruzan. “The difference is, it’s not a ship out at sea. They can’t contain it. Those people go to another store, and you have another mini cruise ship episode, and it just keeps spreading. That’s how we end up with a pandemic.”

Take heart, Oklahoma.We’ll get through this.

Our best bet is to hang tight at home right now, so we can outlast this menace before coronavirus claims any more victims.

According to the Medical Director at OU Medicine, Dr. Cameron Mantor, the required changes are small. They key is every citizen has to prioritize isolation.

“We have lots of predic-tive models of what Okla-homa would look like com-pared to other states. I think we are lucky in that we don’t have the density of popula-tion like you have in New York City. So, I think there is no question, we can con-tinue to flatten this curve and decrease the burden of the people who do become ill in Oklahoma,” said Dr. Mantor. “But, it’s going to be us. We absolutely can impact this, but it’s going to take all of us.”

Recently, the CDC rec-ommended using cloth face-masks to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

Over the past few days, we’ve seen a number of Oklahomans follow that rec-ommendation.

SHINE ADAMS: COVID-19continued from pg. 3

“My mom is not a statistic of COVID-19. She has a name. And

her name is Shineesta Emily Bushyhead Adams, and she is a warrior.”

lowing Thursday she was ad-mitted to the Ponca City Alli-ance Hospital and by the 28th of March she was placed on a ventilator and being sedated into a coma,” Tomi said.

Shine’s ventilator was set at 75 percent, and before long she seemed to be mak-ing progress so the doctors started to wean her down off of the ventilator. First 55 percent, then 50 percent and then 45 percent … every-thing looked promising.

“But then overnight she took a turn for the worse. Her body started filling up with fluid, her legs, arms, her lungs and it became hard for her to breath on her own again. They had to turn up her ventilator to 85 percent, which means my mom is only breathing 15 percent on her own,” Tomi said.

For Tomi and her family they are learning how little medical doctors really know about the coronavirus caus-ing COVID-19.

“The hardest thing is ev-erything is unknown. The doctors and the nurses can’t really predict what’s go-ing to happen because they don’t really know what is happening next. This virus is affecting people differently and some people need ox-ygen and being placed into a coma, and some just need to be quarantined. My mom happened to be the one who needed to be on the ventilator and be sedated,” Tomi said.

Upon arriving to the hospital with severe symp-toms, Shine was given a COVID-19 test. Within 48 hours the results were back … positive. The family was contacted from the hospital and was told everyone Shine had come into contact with needed to quarantine, and

if any showed symptoms to come to the hospital for test-ing as soon as possible.

“AJ went ahead and went in because they told him he needed to go get tested. He goes in but they did not test him saying his symp-toms were mild and to just go home and quarantine. So they are not testing every-body, they are only testing the severe ones,” Tomi said. “They should be testing those who aren’t showing major symptoms so we can figure out how to handle it from there instead of wait-ing until they are severe and have to be on the ventilator.”

The lack of testing has been a key issue in Oklaho-ma and many states, causing frustration among doctors and nurses across the coun-try.

Tomi said it was possible AJ could have been a carrier, but without adequate testing no one knows, “You don’t have to necessarily be show-ing any symptoms to be a carrier, but he has been fever free and doing good now.”

It still feels like a bad nightmare for Shine’s fami-ly … a nightmare they wish they could wake up from. Her husband, Alton Adams stayed in isolation for 14 days, off work with no pay and no contact with any loved ones except over the phone while his wife, Shine

laid in the hospital fighting to stay alive.

“He wants to hold her hand, to be there and kiss her on the forehead, instead he just had to stay home alone, cut off from all his fami-ly and his wife. There was nothing else he could do and that’s just the hardest part. We do a lot of calling. A lot of praying and keeping up with updates from the hospi-tal everyday,” Tomi said.

Tomi’s last time seeing her mom was through her window as Shine sat in her car in her driveway, talking on the phone. The next day Shine was hospitalized.

“My mom drove herself to the hospital. She’s a strong woman. We had quarantined, me and my children, right when all this started happen-ing. Before there was a pos-itive case in Kay County we had been staying inside and not going anywhere. That’s the hardest part,” Tomi said.

Tomi said she is hanging on to the words her mother told her that day. Shine told her daughter she was not going to give up, she would fight and giving up was not an option for her.

“She said she is going to come home to us and I’m go-ing to hold her to that, she’s going to come home,” Tomi said.

Tomi said she believes more needs to be done to

make people realize how se-rious COVID-19 is and a stay at home order needs to be en-forced. Especially when she sees photos of parents taking their children to the parks in Ponca City spreading the vi-rus, or photos of high school kids gathering together while her mother lies in a hospital bed fighting for her life.

“Makes me sick to see people out there doing that because my mom is alone. We are alone trying to find out how to take care of my mom from a distance. And to see people out there who treat this virus like it’s nothing or say it’s just like the flu, it’s not like the flu. This is killing people,” Tomi said. “There needs to be a lock down and get this under control. There are too many in the state of Oklahoma that have contact-ed the virus and something needs to be done.”

And Tomi hopes for many other families, there will be more testing available.

“We need more testing. We need more testing for our people and our clinics be-cause without proper testing we are going to see our trib-al numbers decrease. What about our elders and our children? We need to protect them. We need to stop the spread of this virus and in order to do that I do believe the stay at home needs to be implemented,” Tomi said. “My mom is not a statistic of COVID-19. She has a name. And her name is Shineesta Emily Bushyhead Adams, and she is a warrior.”

UPDATE: Shine Adams was transferred to a Okla-homa City hospital from Ponca City on Friday, April 10 as she continues to fight for her life and recover from COVID-19.

It was hard. It was unfair: It was a funeral during a pandemic

(SEILING, OK) When my grandmother, Lavon Gore, died in early March, every pew in the local Meth-odist church was full and many other people, unable to find a seat, congregated along the walls.

Just a few weeks later when granddad died, there were nine of us in the chapel for the service, including two ministers.

It was not as if Alton Gore had not meant as much to our family, or to the community he had been deeply involved in his entire life. Rather, credit a pandemic that had crossed an ocean and final-ly reached our doorstep in

small-town Seiling, Oklaho-ma.

The funeral directors, dealing with an unprecedent-ed situation without a real play book, tried to adhere to new directives that limit-ed gatherings to 10 people. This meant our family was split. A few of us said good-bye in person, while the rest watched a live stream in an-other wing of the church.

In this instance my stub-bornness came in handy, as I stayed put and simply said no when asked to leave my seat on the second row. I made it understood that I was not go-ing to watch the service on a TV screen.

Selfish? Maybe. But re-gardless of my presence or lack thereof, there was plen-ty of room for social dis-tancing. We complied at the beginning of the service, but as the funeral proceeded to a slideshow of our family’s fa-vorite memories, the distance between us disappeared, emotionally and sometimes physically.

The service was similar to Grandma’s in its mes-sage, our family’s mourning and the recordings of gospel songs by Willie Nelson and Alan Jackson. But it was so heartbreakingly unfamiliar.

I felt torn that my cousins

were having to watch grand-dad be put to rest remotely, even though they were in the same building. Somehow that thought made it even worse, being so close and feeling so far away.

However, when I glanced behind me as Willie wrapped up his rendition of “I’ll Fly Away,” I could not help but smile. Several family mem-bers had filtered into the back of the room.

I guess stubbornness runs in the family.

It was a somber feeling as we walked beside the casket to the hearse waiting outside. Not only because it was a last

By Hogan Gore, Gaylord News

PAGE 6 Tsistsistas & HinonoeiCheyenne & Arapaho Tribal Tribune

Learning and Organizational Specialist Christine Denny said the program allows children to access thousands of books and is individualized for each student based on their interests and reading level. The Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes Child Development pro-gram originally purchased the program for children enrolled in child development and for head start programs. However, the tribes’ opened it up to become available for all trib-ally enrolled children.

“Families are encouraged to spend time together reading and learning with myON,” Denny said.

Denny said the book reader allows stu-dents to select optional reading support in-cluding audio narration, text highlighting and an embedded dictionary for any book they choose to read.

“myON includes fiction and nonfic-tion, with about 10% of the titles available in Spanish. Titles range from monsters and sports, to biographies and health to help ex-pand your child’s imagination into the world of reading,” Denny said.

Denny said parents can sign their children up through email with their child’s first and last name, and grade.

With schools working closely with their students’ families and configuring ways to continue classes on April 6, numerous plans were set into motion throughout school dis-tricts for distance learning.

El Reno High School Principal Pat Litick-er said the high school has a remote learning plan in place that began on Monday, April 6.

“Teachers have reached out to each stu-dent and parent in order to determine if they prefer digital, online instruction or paper packets to work on. All work will be avail-able each Monday in either format and paper packets will be picked up at the STEM Cen-ter or food distribution locations according to the student’s preference,” Liticker said.

With the pandemic affecting in class in-struction, Liticker said the school is confident in the plan set forth.

“There is no doubt the school closure will impact student learning, but we are confident in the plan we have so that students will be able to stay engaged and continue learning and enriching previous learning. This is a challenge we will overcome together,” Li-ticker said.

Liticker said students choosing the online option would continue using familiar formats such as Google Classroom, Math XL, Get More Math, Studysync, USA Test Prep, Can-vas, or Plato.

With social distancing and safer at home policies in place to help stop the spread of COVID-19, Liticker said the school is taking these policies very seriously.

“We regret that our students will miss out on many of the fun and exciting things asso-ciated with school this spring. These are very extraordinary times and need to be taken very seriously, we have put measures in place to continue instruction while keeping the health and safety of our faculty and students our top priority,” Liticker said.

For other schools with an Indigenous ac-

ademic community, Sovereign Community School (SCS) in Oklahoma City have also set forth a distance learning program for students and their families.

Outlined in their distance learning plan, SCS sixth and ninth grade students will en-gage with materials focused on Math, Read-ing and English Language development and are expected to participate in lessons each day.

SCS’s distance learning outline states, “we will work collaboratively with our SCS fam-ilies for the duration of our distance learning program to ensure that students’ unique needs are met, especially the needs of our students who receive special education services. Par-ents will receive consistent communication from our teachers and will have access to the online platforms teachers use to deliver in-struction (e.g. Google Classroom, YouTube, etc.). It is our hope that during this period of distance learning, SCS students continue to grow and develop, and most importantly stay healthy and safe.”

As part of their learning daily expecta-tions, a total of 135 minutes of learning is offered for sixth graders and 180 minutes of learning offered for ninth graders at SCS.

With practices in place for social distanc-ing and distance learning, education contin-ues to move forward with remote schooling during the covid-19 pandemic.

“I think what is most challenging is our kids are missing their friends and wanting to get out and go places,” Muskett said, “But the best part about the stay at home order is our children have learned to be creative.They are playing outside more, reading, running, learning about plants and playing with their animals. We have some caterpillars that were given to us at the Chickasaw Cultural Center, so we have been watching them form into co-coons and the kids are excited to see them become butterflies and set them free.”

For Tahdooahnippah, what was most chal-lenging was facing the unknown.

“We were not aware of how long they would be out of school or if they would re-turn,” Tahdooahnippah said.

With the recent announcement of school closures for the rest of the year, Tah-dooahnippah said it has allowed her to plan out a schedule for her children to finish their online course work.

“Keeping in contact with the schools is crucial in making sure your students are keeping up with the curriculum and will not lose out on necessary school work needed in order to advance in the fall,” Tahdooahnip-pah said.

She said the most positive thing for her home was that many of the programs she was already familiar with.

“Being able to help them stay involved and advance their education has been a task but can be done with patience and allowing the kids to work at their pace,” Tahdooahnip-pah said.

To sign your children up for the myON reading program email Christine Denny, cdenny@cheyenneandarapaho-nsn.gov.

ONLINE LEARNINGcontinued from pg. 4

roll up their windows and depart.“The samples will be sent off for test-

ing and patients can expect test results in approximately 24-48 hours. The service unit will contact the individual once the results are received,” Capt. Bryant said.

Clinton Indian Health Center had no positive test results as of Friday, April 10.

On a national level according to test-ing reports from the Indian Health Ser-vices (IHS), there have been 11,818 tests performed through IHS. Of those tested, 985 have tested positive for COVID-19. The three regions with the largest num-ber of tests were listed as the Navajo

area, Oklahoma City area and the Bill-ings, Mont. Area. Combined, these three regions serve more than 754,000 Native Americans.

The two regions with the highest number of COVID-19 positive cases are the Navajo area and the Albuquerque, N.M. area.

According to the IHS website, “Data is reported from IHS, tribal and urban Indian organizations facilities, though reporting by tribal and urban programs is voluntary. This is a rapidly evolving sit-uation and the IHS will provide updated information as it becomes available and verified.”

DRIVE-THRU TESTINGcontinued from pg. 3

OBITUARIES

Winston Thomas RouseWinston Thomas Rouse,

Jr. was born on Sept. 9, 1965 in Clinton, Okla. to Winston Thomas Sr. and Marie Ellen (Blindy) Rouse. He passed away on April 5, 2020 in Weatherford, Okla. at the age of 54.

Thomas was raised in Clinton and attended Clinton Public Schools. He moved to Geary in 2010 to live with Deborah Sweezy and her family and has lived in Geary since that time. He enjoyed walking, being outside, cut-ting wood, playing domi-noes, and Chinese checkers. He was a member of the Na-

tive American Church. He worked at the Chesapeake Arena where he met many of the NBA players.

He is survived by his spe-cial mothers, Mary Blindy Sweezy, Carole Blindy, Ani-ta Blindy Campbell and Joan Blindy Soap, his niece John-na Marie Watts, his grand-kids, Cheyenne, Maysen, and Magnus, as well as many other relatives and friends.

He was preceded in death by his parents, Winston and Marie Rouse, three brothers, James Allen, Roger Dean, and Johnny LaRue Rouse and his grandparents, Bell

Wilson Rouse, Thomas Win-ston Rouse, and Angus and Josephine Blindy North.

Graveside services were held April 8 at the North Family Cemetery, officiated by Rev. Gerald Panana.

Joyce Marie TwinsJoyce Marie Twins was

born Dec. 30, 1943 to Harvey Twins and Mariam (Mann) Twins in Clinton, Okla. and passed on March 29, 2020 in the Corn Heritage Vil-lage in Weatherford, Okla. Joyce was raised in Ham-mon and Clinton area and she graduated from Clin-ton High School in 1963. She went to Chilocco In-dian School and received a cosmetology certificate. She continued her educa-tion and received her bach-elor’s degree and master’s degree from Southwestern Oklahoma State Universi-ty (SWOSU). She served as a language instructor for the Native American Indian Language Studies at the University of Okla-homa, SWOSU, and she taught native language in several high schools.

She worked many years for the Cheyenne and Arap-aho Tribes of Oklahoma. She was a planner for the Planning Department and the director for the Lan-guage and Library program. Joyce worked for the Chey-enne Culture Center Inc., from 1977 to 1992. One of her highlights while working for the center was teaching “Circle Keeper Children” to sing Cheyenne hymns at the National Ca-thedral in Washington, D.C. She was a member of the Indian Mennonite Church. She loved going to pow-wows and was a traditional dancer, she enjoyed mak-ing shawls and buck skin dresses and Sundance dress-es and she loved to shop. She is preceded in death by her parents, three brothers, McClain Twins,

Rupert Twins, Raphael Twins and a sister, Mini-ta Twins Runningwater. She is survived sister Lu-cinda Twins, Taos, N.M., and brothers, Lucian Twins, Clinton and Wesley Twins, Stillwater, Okla. She is also survived by numerous niec-es and nephews.

Graveside services were held April 2 at the Clinton Indian Cemetery officiated by Rev. Gerald Panana.

Alice Marie SegerAlice Marie Seger was

born Aug. 6, 1949 to Arthur and Bessie (Black Beard) Seger in Washita Coun-ty, Oklahoma, and passed away March 31, 2020 in the Mercy Hospital Emergen-cy Room in Oklahoma City. Alice was raised in Clin-ton and attended Clinton Schools and the Chilocco Indian Boarding School where she graduated. She has been a stay at home mom and became a master seamstress. She was well known for the shawl making. She married Roy Kester in 1990 in Clinton, Okla., and they have made Clin-ton their home ever since.

She was a member of the Indian Baptist Church and loved going to powwows and memorial dances. She was preceded in death by her parents, four broth-ers, Douglas Seger, Ster-ling Seger, John Homer Seger, Cyrus Seger and two sisters, Bertha Big Horse and Mary Seger. She is survived by her hus-band Roy Kester and a son Christopher Kester, both of the home and a daughter April Dawn Rivers of Clin-ton. She is also survived by six grandchildren, McKin-ley, Macey, Katie, Daniel Jr., Alessandra and Marylyn, and four great-grandchil-

dren, Karson, Edson, Juliana and Joshua and two Chey-enne sisters, Joan Swallow, Geary, Okla., and Patsy Jim of Chickasha, Okla.

Family graveside services were held April 3 in the Clin-ton Indian Cemetery, offici-ated by Gerald Panana.

Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes’ receive donations of fresh produce from Wal-Mart, Inc. for distribution to families. Volunteers showed up to assist with unloading and transporting fresh produce to the tribes’ community centers for distribution.

PAGE 7Tsistsistas & Hinonoei Cheyenne & Arapaho Tribal Tribune

Department of HousingWaiting List Report

Mutual Help ProgramThe following applicants need to complete a 2020

UPDATE FORM byApril 30, 2020.

If an update form is not received by this

date, their name will be removed from the

Mutual-Help waiting list for failure to update.NO EXCEPTIONS!

For questions or more information contactEileen Salcido at580-331-2400 or email esalcido@

cheyenneandarapaho-nsn.gov

Rita PriceBonita CruzAnita Gouge

Georgia McGeeChristopher Tall BearMiranda Cometsevah

Danecia WandrieSummer Klinekole

ONLINE LEARNINGcontinued from pg. 4

DRIVE-THRU TESTINGcontinued from pg. 3

Happy 10th Birthday DJ April 5. All your family & friends love you. You’re

such a blessing, hope you had a great day!

Happy Birthday Rachelle BirdsHead We are very

blessed to have you in our lives. May the Lord continue to watch over you & keep

you safe. We love & miss you granddaughter. From your grandma Regina and your

baby sister Tara Jade

Happy 11 Birthday TJ April 16th your growing up so fast, love all your family & friends, God

bless you!

Happy 9th Birthday Trystan April 4! Love all your friends & family,

dad & Sarah, mom Hope you had a great

birthday!

To our beloved son:You left us three years

ago on April 24, 2017, but it seems like yesterday.

People tell me it’s time to move on. These people do not know what it’s like to lose a child.

I am grateful for the 39 years I had with you sonny. The laughs, jokes, pranks, all we used to talk about. Our lit-tle inside jokes … I love and miss you to no end.

Your son and daughter are growing up real nice. Soon pretty baby is going to be 18!

Sonny, until we see you in the heavenly home, love dad Michael, mom Georgia, sister Stacy and auntie Rita.

Happy Easter to my friends back home.

My “phat” baby Ralen Bird and the one and only Julia

Cozad.I love and miss ya’ll

so much!Happy Easter. Stay safe and be strong

One love from Carswell, Texas

Rachel Tonka White

In Loving Memory of Patrick Emhoolah IINov. 15, 1997 – April 24, 2017

Moonlit morning still at nightDark as day and day is light

Sense the movement through the treesFeel the passion ‘neath the falling leaves

With stars for a crownAnd a mountain as a throne

I can feel your presenceAs the cool wind blows

Nothing here for me to fear‘Cept the pain of feeling alone

Rodney P. Candy Fire

Cheyenne and Arapaho

Tribes

(405) 262-0345 / (800) 247-4612

P.O.Box 38Concho, OK

73022

cheyenneand-arapaho-nsn.gov

Irene Frances (White Tail Mendivil) Martin deploys to New York state to assist in treating COVID-19 patients.

Irene is a citizen of the Cheyenne and Arap-aho Tribes residing in Lavern, Ariz., with her husband Nathan Mar-tin. She is a licensed RN serving in the U.S. Navy Reserve and is a veteran of the U.S. Air Force.

Irene’s parents are Winnie White Tail and Spencer Mendivil.

The family is request-ing prayers for Irene’s safe return.

Request for Prayers

It’s OfficialCheyenne and Arapa-

ho tribal citizen Jennifer Wilkinson was officially named a candidate on the democratic ticket for Okla-homa State Senate District 45 on April 8, 2020.

On the Republican ticket, incumbent Paul Rosino will

face off against Steve Cun-ningham on June 30, 2020.

Pictured below Jennifer Wilkinson (l) and her daugh-ter Livy (7) hold up the of-ficial paperwork declaring Wilkinson as a candidate in the 2020 Oklahoma State Senate District 45 race.

goodbye, but because we were doing it without so many important people.

There were no friends to hug or distant relatives who made the trip, no old class-mates to share stories about days gone by and no one from our little town express-ing how much Alton Gore had meant to their experiences growing up in a tight-knit community.

It was hard. It was unfair. It was a fu-neral during a pandemic.

As we lingered outside the church before the procession to the cemetery began, there was still a feeling of incom-

pleteness. But as we drove down Main Street and

passed by Gore’s Phillip’s 66 Service Sta-tion, which has been in our family since 1939, there was a sense of normalcy.

Cars and trucks stopped along the road, drivers got out of their vehicles and took their hats off to show respect. Some from the community were able to be there for my family and to wave goodbye. It was a small sense of closure.

There is no doubt it has been a hard year for my family, losing our patriarch and matriarch in addition to my father,

Marty Gore, who died in August in a mo-torcycle accident, and my great-grand-mother, Betty Wilson, who died in De-cember. But through it all, and even a pandemic, we have been there for each other and carried on together.

My family has not lost anyone to the coronavirus, but the pandemic definitely altered the way we said our goodbyes to Granddad.

In the days following the funeral we had the collective chore of sifting through our grandparents’ home of more than half a century. And believe me, it was all

there. This may seem like an unfortunate

chore, and it was a daunting task. But we were all there together, rediscovering memories once lost under piles of paper and stacks of boxes.

As we worked throughout the day, a few of my cousins and I would occa-sionally sneak into the backyard, where Grandma and granddad had once set up our own family sandlot. We played base-ball until dusk, like we were kids again, and the only tears came from laughter.

PANDEMIC FUNERALcontinued from pg. 5

PAGE 8 Tsistsistas & HinonoeiCheyenne & Arapaho Tribal Tribune

Oklahoma’s tribes have spent the last decade to ensure their citi-zens are better counted by the U.S. census. But the coronavirus pan-demic is making that harder.

Some counties where tribes are predominant are far behind others in the statewide count that shows 41 percent of the state’s households have completed the census survey as U.S. Census 2020 nears the end of the second week of the decennial count.

Counties that comprise the Choctaw, Cherokee and Muscogee (Creek) Nations are below the cur-rent state average with 28.4 per-cent, 35.2 percent and 36.5 percent of households being reported, re-spectively.

Osage County, home of the Osage Nation, is far behind with only 19.3 percent of households having completed the census with nearly the entire response, 19.2 percent, being turned in online. In contrast, the response from Pot-tawatomie County, home of the Cit-izen Potawatomi Nation, is higher than the average state response at 45 percent.

“Our tribal nations are important and everyone needs to be counted,” said U.S. Rep Kendra Horn (D, OK). “But we know, historically, that Native Americans and indige-nous peoples are undercounted and they are one of the groups that is most likely to be undercounted.”

Horn and U.S. Rep. Tom Cole (R, OK) introduced in February a resolution that emphasized the im-portance of tribal participation in the census and the negative impact an undercount will have for tribal communities.

“When we’re talking about trib-

al communities, the federal programs and the funding that goes to our tribes are dramati-cally impacted. It goes to help tribal health programs, housing pro-grams, workforce pro-grams, infrastructure, and so much more,” said Horn.

During the 2010 census Native Amer-ican communities across the country were undercounted by nearly five percent, or nearly 340,000. Okla-homa tribes were no exception as differ-ences in how tribal affiliation was recorded left many tribal citizens uncounted.

“Ours was an 80 percent un-dercount when you look at our numbers we had at the time,” said Melissa Landers, senior director of membership services and head of the complete count committee for the Choctaw Nation. “But what hurt our tribe in particular, was be-ing one of three federally recog-nized tribes to go by Choctaw.”

The tribe learned after the 2010 census unless respondents wrote in “Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma” their tribal affiliation was not count-ed. This meant the roughly 159,000 that responded with “Choctaw” or “Choctaw Nation” were excluded.

The 24,000 respondents that identified as “Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma,” were then used to de-termine federal funding and grant money.

“That’s one of the reasons that I’ve emphasized this so much is

that it is very important when peo-ple fill out the census for tribal citizens to fill out the exact name of their tribe on the census form,” said Horn. “That’s something that we worked with the census on, but right now the solution is we need to make sure that when people fill out their census, they put the official name of their tribe.”

In response to the undercount and miscommunication in 2010 the Choctaw Nation took steps lead-ing up to the 2020 census by ad-vertising and using social media. The tribe also started the complete count committee to promote the census and coordinated with the U.S. Census Bureau.

Choctaw Chief Gary Batton in a letter to Steve Dillingham, di-rector of the U.S. Census Bureau, explained the tribe’s situation and asked if completing the form with “Choctaw Nation” would be suffi-cient in 2020. The bureau agreed.

“The biggest part of our mes-saging to members was not only do

we encourage you to complete the census, but when you do, please be sure to write in you and your fami-ly as members of the Choctaw Na-tion,” said Landers.

The Muscogee (Creek) Nation was also undercounted in 2010 due to variations in how tribal affilia-tion was recorded.

“We had similar issues and that’s kind of why we put an em-phasis on how we are marked,” said Jason Salsman, a spokesman for the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. “So we’re asking our citizens to either put Creek Nation, Muscogee Nation or Muscogee Creek Nation without the parenthesis.”

The tribe is currently working to promote the census through its Census Day Count Me Muscogee initiative with online advertising, social media and public service an-nouncements. Due to the coronavi-rus all in-person efforts have been halted.

“So, for us, it’s been a little bit of unfortunate timing, with the na-

tional crisis and the global crisis that we’re facing, because it’s tak-ing a little bit of, I guess you could say energy away from our census push,” said Salsman.

Like all the tribes in the state, the Choctaw Nation’s efforts to raise awareness about the census also have taken a hit.

The Choctaw Nation had to can-cel and postpone events that were lined up to promote the census as well, such as youth engagement events and a “roadshow” that would have made its way around the Na-tion’s travel plazas and casinos.

“So the downside is, while we saw a lot of excitement generated about the census early on, after it actually officially kicked off we’ve not been able to be in personal contact with our members. And so there’s a little bit of concern there,” said Landers.

Gaylord News is a reporting project of the University of Oklaho-ma Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication.

Oklahoma Tribes Push for Census Completion Despite Pandemic

By Hogan Gore, Gaylord News